Caravan

“The Food and service was incredible, I tipped an extra tenner on top of the 12.5%!” I was excited about Caravan. It’s not often I hear a recommendation like this from a friend with such high standards, (he is the manager at The Bull and Last in Highgate). Caravan on Exmouth market seemed like the perfect spot to catch up with a couple of other food lovers for dinner. It is on Exmouth market, a fun street packed with delicious hang outs that I sampled when I was interning at Studio 8 (link). I was happy to be back and excited about the feast to come.

I arrived before my mates and opted for a drink at the bar. Before I even made eye contact with the barman, a chilled glass of tap water appeared in front of me. It’s so nice when you don’t have to ask when going out for dinner, but I didn’t expect this before I had ordered my first drink.

Being an early bird and a bit of a geek when it comes to design of the interior and graphic nature, I had a time to properly check out both. I felt really comfortable in the modern, but cosy atmosphere they have created.

The Food:

We chose a few ‘small plates’ to share. It’s great when restaurants do this because when there are so many interesting things on the menu, you just want to try as many as possible. We unanimously agreed on blue cheese and peanut wontons (£4), washed down with earl grey infused martinis (£8) and got our heads round the other unusual combinations.

Caravan do food combinations that initially seem odd, but when you taste you understand that this food is what travelling is made of. The excitement of exploring a new country is injected into the food. Every dish was unexpected, particularly the surprise amuse bouche was brought to us. We asked the waiter more about the lentilly spicy food but he wasn’t sure - we let him off because what he lacked in food knowledge, he redeemed in Ryan Gosling features. Let’s focus on the important things here hey?

Then came the edamame bean and goats cheese pancake (£5.50), which was light and stringy cheesy, I nervously tried a mussle for the first time which had been steamed in thai green sauce. Nice. As a fish I have yet to conquer I trusted my friends that the mackerel fish cakes were great (£6.50). The highlight for me was the aparagus with manouri cheese scattered with physalis. (£5)

For pudding, we shared a mango sorbet with a vanilla mascarpone and toasted pistaccio (£6) and after trying put each off by liking it’s appearance to an egg, we wolfed down its delicate flavours. I liked the texture of the crunchy toasted pistaccios with the sorbet - a delicious end to a delicious feast. I can’t wait to go back and try everything we didn’t try this time.

11-13 Exmouth Market  London, EC1R 4QD

http://caravanonexmouth.co.uk/